What computer to use for Dos/Win98 Games

[cisco678]

I was recently given a lot of PCs and wanted to make one of them available for classic gaming. My options are:

1. Use current gaming PC running Windows 7 with Dosbox. (Dual 3.6 Xeon, 1TB HD, 8GB)

2. Install Windows 98SE on Laptop. (Gateway Solo 9550, P3 1Ghz, 60GB HD 512MB)

3. Install Windows 98SE on Old PC (Gateway Profile 1, AMD K6-2 10GB HD, 256MB)

I'm leaning towards using option 3 but would like opinions.

[Jorpho]

It depends entirely on what exactly you want to run. Yes, one option might be compatible with a wider range of games than another, but if you're never going to run those games that require better compatibility, there's no point and it really would be most sensible to stick with DOSBox.

If you want to run games that require a powerful computer, then the laptop is the obvious choice. That is, assuming that you can find Win98 drivers for the laptop hardware. This page says it uses the NVIDIA Geforce 2 GO chipset, which I suppose isn't terrible; the most demanding 3D games would be out of the question, though.

If you don't require that kind of power, then the old PC would be a better choice, particularly because you could throw in some older hardware like a Voodoo2 for games that require it.

[cisco678]

J'orfeaux: I have around 250+ games from 1990-2001 that I want to run.

Examples would include:

Thief
Thief 2
Mechwarrior 2
Scumm Games (Sam & Max, DOTT etc)
Adventure Games (King's Quest Space Quest etc)
Wing Commander Series (Privateer, Wing Commander Kilrathi Saga
Ultima Series
Doom Series
Crusader Series
Syndicate Series
Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale Series
Master of Magic
Starcraft/Warcraft Series
Stonekeep
Strike Commander
Quake 1-3
System Shock Series
Realms of Haunting
Descent Series

The Gateway Profile 1 is an all-in-one PC. I believe it has an onboard ATI Rage 3D

[dgdgagdae]

You can run some of those in ScummVM, which is a great choice. Most of the others will run just fine in DOSBox. A lot of the titles you listed are for sale on GOG, and they're packaged with DOSBox.

[cisco678]

Dgdgagdae: GOG is a great website, but I still own the original CDS/floppiy disks. Dosbox + ScummVM sounds like a good idea.

[Edmond Dantes]

I would go with option 3.

My own old PC is a AMD K6 at 500mhz, with 128MB of RAM, Soundblaster 16 and a Voodoo 3. I've thought of giving it more RAM and maybe a better soundcard, but haven't ever seen a point--with the current configuration it can run just about any Windows 95/98 game I throw at it. The original Half-Life makes it chug if I blast the graphics though.

If you only plan to run Windows games on it, anything that has Win98 drivers will do. But if you plan to run DOS games as well, you want to make sure your sound card plugs into an ISA slot, not a PCI slot (you can make DOS games work with PCI but it requires so many extra hoops to jump through). You also might wanna try to find an optical mouse that plugs into old-fashioned serial ports... yes they exist, I have one, and its awesome for making your hero poke an Antwerp.

[Jorpho]

A lot of those games can probably be persuaded to run under Windows 7.

I believe it has an onboard ATI Rage 3D

That is a painfully limited card as far as Windows games go.

But if you plan to run DOS games as well, you want to make sure your sound card plugs into an ISA slot, not a PCI slot (you can make DOS games work with PCI but it requires so many extra hoops to jump through).

Extra hoops? The only problem with PCI cards is that the driver requires expanded memory. I'd actually say that ISA cards require extra hoops, what with the need to keep Creative's PnP configuration manager set up properly. Plus, the PCI cards ought to give better signal quality, but it might be hard to notice that kind of thing.

You also might wanna try to find an optical mouse that plugs into old-fashioned serial ports... yes they exist, I have one, and its awesome for making your hero poke an Antwerp.

There's really no harm in using a PS/2 mouse.

[skaar]

If you want any 3D gaming, you'll want the AMD with a Voodoo1 or 2.

SB16 sound card and you're set.

[Edmond Dantes]

Extra hoops? The only problem with PCI cards is that the driver requires expanded memory. I'd actually say that ISA cards require extra hoops, what with the need to keep Creative's PnP configuration manager set up properly. Plus, the PCI cards ought to give better signal quality, but it might be hard to notice that kind of thing.

I'm not sure where you're getting that ISA requires extra hoops... in my experience, all you have to do is make sure that the settings are in the autoexec.bat and you're good to go. CTCM is optional, but recommended to control volume.

There's really no harm in using a PS/2 mouse.

*hits self* That's right. I keep forgetting that PS/2 has been around for awhile (my own computer doesn't have ps/2 ports. If it did I would gladly use that)

[vintagegamecrazy]

Will a PS/2 mouse support all if not most Dos games? I just got a optical PS/2 mouse from a thrift and really like it and was surprised to see it since they don't seem that common at all. I am going to use it on a IBM PS/1. Will it have any incompatibility issues as opposed to using a serial mouse?

Thanks

[Jorpho]

None that I've ever heard of.

*hits self* That's right. I keep forgetting that PS/2 has been around for awhile (my own computer doesn't have ps/2 ports. If it did I would gladly use that)

Is there perhaps a header for such a connector on the motherboard somewhere?

[Edmond Dantes]

Serial and PS/2 should work fine with DOS as long as you load a mouse driver (I recommend Cutemouse which takes very little memory). Only USB mice have problems in DOS.

[Jamtex]

I run a number of DOS based games on old computers and this is my experince.

DOSBox is great but it can make some games chug depending on your hardware, it may slow down depending on what is going on in the background and certain keys may bring up windows programs.

Personally I run everything on their own computers for DOS.

Get a machine that does have PS2 ports for mouse and keyboard, for most DOS games the low hundred Mhz is fine.
Use a CRT monitor.
If the game needs pure dos then I suggest either MS-DOS 6.22 or FreedDOS, both have memory options to get the most memory from the system. Else Windows 98SE is a good alternative.
PCI soundcards can be easier to set up, BUT only if they have DOS drivers the early Creative Soundblaster PCI cards tend to have these but later ones do not and may not work on DOS at all. An ISA soundcard may need some setting up but it is not too hard.
As recommended use cutemouse for the mouse driver it is tiny.
Most CD-ROM can support DOS easily, although drivers may be harder to find but Windows will have most of them. Alternatively find cracked or NOCD patches for games.
If using DOS then you'll get very used to editing the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files and remembering switch settings for HIMEM.SYS
However once you have everything perfect then it does feel more nostalgic and better then playing the game on a moderrn PC with it's soulless LCD display.